I’d really like to see tweaks to age requirements. Currently, the dark age feels inconsequential, dark age civ bonus barely matter etc. With most players teching up between 3-6 mins there isn’t much going on strategically. Thoughts?
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I agree that the Dark Age feels like a filler age more than anything, but I don’t know how they can make it more interesting so that people will stay longer time in that age.
The only real dark age play I’ve seen is by Pros who rush a few spearmen to burn down an enemy dock…or maybe send a MAA to deny gold for an age up…so I agree there should be more to it than just a stepping stone to Feudal.
Dark age play is limited to basically hybrid or water maps Reduced dark age time is one of the biggest difference since AOE2 imo (and in that game, it was just longer, very rarely was there anything of significance done outside of the rare boar lame)
I think it’s good as it is, it gives a bit of a break until you age up, so you have time to scout and plan your strategy.
There are still some tower rush or other rush you can do with some civ. Japan and English even have MAA.
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I agree with you @Marc4770
Its a time of preparation
I agree with @Marc4770 as well
It is beggining of the game, time to explore the map, less pressure before intensive fight and it is fine
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Having a slow dark age is also good for new players when they are learning the game.
That’s a problem inherent of the “aging up” concept.
If you look at other RTS games that handle it differently, they don’t have this issue. StarCraft, Battle for Middle Earth, SupCom. You advance due to your tech research and then more techs unlock, not because you spend an arbitrary amount of resources to age up and that unlocks more techs.
I am not opposed to the way Age of Empires does it, heck, it’s even in the franchise name, but there must definitely be a better way to implement it than “I need to race out of Dark Age as fast as I can”. What’s the point then?
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You don’t have to do it as fast as you can.
I saw even some pro game do MMA rush. Tower rush.
You can also start accumulate stone for a tc. Or make docks on water maps.
There are other things to do in dark age.
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I suggested this years ago. The ages are meant to immerse you into the role play. But it fails at that. Dark age is just a vestigial token age that has no purpose. They should just remove it or double the cost of aging up as I suggested. No one should be able to blitz straight to the next age without making a single barracks or military unit, that’s just stupid. We should have more opportunity to make a dark age play or expand or something. It’s way too easy to just ignore the age completely. Same with the 2nd age, some strategies are to skip it completely and rush castle. It’s a bad design. The civs are badly balanced in dark age tho is the underlying problem. If dark age up cost were doubled it would certainly favor some civs. The rock-paper-scissors dynamic doesn’t come into effect until the 2nd age. Dark age feels so incomplete and worthless.
[quote=“Heftydogg, post:11, topic:244865, full:true”] It’s way too easy to just ignore the age completely. Same with the 2nd age, some strategies are to skip it completely and rush castle. It’s a bad design. The civs are badly balanced in dark age tho is the underlying problem. If dark age up cost were doubled it would certainly favor some civs. The rock-paper-scissors dynamic doesn’t come into effect until the 2nd age. Dark age feels so incomplete and worthless.
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This is design of all Age of Empires (Mythology) games since original AoE1 from 1997.
The 1th age is just the beginning of the game.
It was was intentionally shortened from AOE2. Dark age was kinda long and drawn out, Dark age rush → Fast castle strategy is pretty boring.
Dark age is meant to be a starting setup age where you have to make some build path choices, scouting the map is super important (and takes up a lot of your micro time). Any kind of dark age strategy that is aggressive is usually super hated by the community and gets nerfed quickly (TC ####### tower rush, Vanguard MAA). Dark age still is an important part of the game (doubly so on hybrid maps where you frequently fight a lot in dark age and it’s very extended).
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What build path choices? Dark age goes the same 99% of the time. Sure, maybe a little different on water or vs a certain civ, but the dark age plan is set in place during the load screen. Nothing can really interrupt it because there’s no time for any events to take place. It’s like the game wants to be a combat simulator it skips so quickly through any immersive roleplay.
Scouting really doesn’t take much micro, not in dark age. You see pros basically yawn through it. Heck, if you play 10 games per day the dark age starts to feel like a real chore. The maps are so predictable too. With a little experience your mind can fill in the rest of the map after you realize your position in it. Scouting doesn’t feel rewarding. In AoE3 you at least had treasures that made the world feel alive and interesting to scout.
Dark age feeling like a chore was why it was accelerated. Playing 8 minutes or whatever it was in AOE2 where the most interesting thing to happen is pushing deer or killing the boar was way more of a snooze. I referred to build choices civs often having either landmark choices or different vill allocations based on feudal army. Some civs have somewhat micro intensive starts like Delhi or China for a bit too.
On hybrid maps, dark age usually sees more combat than imperial (because imperial is pretty uncommon to happen)
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It only feels like a chore because the game is too heavily focused around combat and nothing else. They should just eliminate the dark age entirely then and it’d apparently make you all happier. Start the game with 1 of every production building and 30 villagers if skipping to combat is what people want. You don’t seem capable of imagining anything other than what they’ve been doing for 2 decades, but they could get a lot more creative with dark age.
I mean that’s what empire wars is for, it’s literally a game mode. IMO dark age strikes as a nice balance as quickly warming up into the game. If you dislike the slow dark age so much, pretty sure they just added empire wars to matchmaking.
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Yeah, it’s basically bad game design for all those games then. Dark age doesn’t necessarily need to have more combat but it could very well include more decision making depending on the map layout and scout information.
For people saying dark age is good as it is because of treaty time: Why not just start in feudal with 2 villagers and less starting ressources? Result would be very similar without having an extra age that is barely used. And yeah I kow that there’s a few civs out there that do have options in dark age, but majority does not.
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The first age in this game is to make your BO/develop your plan, explore and, depending on the map and civilizations, try to put pressure on the opponent with some military units or a tower and try to get a slight advantage.
Let’s not go complicating an age that doesn’t usually last too long, that’s what the rest of the ages are for. This is AoE.
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My main issue is, there are dark age civ bonuses that really don’t have much breathing room to consider and/or leverage (with few exceptions).